Sam Drucker

Sam Drucker is the owner of the general store in Hooterville, and aside from this duty, he is also the town's postmaster, editor of the newspaper, justice of the peace, county clerk, water commissioner, deputy sheriff (sometimes sheriff) and occasionally its mayor.

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Sam is a diligent and hard worker who always tries to keep his customers happy and is always willing to give service with a smile. He is good friends with almost everyone in Hooterville, with the exception of Mr. Haney of course with whom he shares a pseudo-rivalry with due to Haney usually trying to steal Sam's customers and sell them damaged goods. Because of his many duties, he is often at times overworked but still manages to maintain a laid back lifestyle, with the only time he ever got stressed (to the point of a mental breakdown) was when a supermarket was opened up in Pixley. He loves fishing and camping in his free time and is always willing to give his customers time to pay off their bills, although some may go years without paying their debts much to his chagrin.

Sam shares a long history with Kate Bradley and both share a very close friendship, but in truth Sam is in love with Kate but always kept his own feelings suppressed or ignored them, presumably for the sake of preserving their friendship, but is unable to suppress them when he feels that he may lose her, which drives him mad with jealousy, but nonetheless he prefers to maintain his friendship with her rather than spoil it with romance, and also mostly due to his fear of commitment. He also has a history with Granny and she is constantly under the impression that Sam wants to marry her, however Sam has no intentions of doing so.

By the time of the events in Return to Green Acres, Sam is shown to still be alive and healthy and is still running his store while maintaining his duty as postmaster, although whether he still holds his other positions is never stated. His store is also shown to be nowhere near the train tracks of the Hooterville Cannonball even though the interior implies that it is the same store as always.

Sam was played by Frank Cady. Cady originally starred as Sam Drucker in Petticoat Junction and later on got a recurring role as Sam in Green Acres as well, and he appeared in 10 episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies between 1968–1970. He was the only character from all three shows to be featured prominently in all three, being a major character in two and a minor supporting character in The Beverly Hillbillies. Cady also reprised the role of Sam Drucker for the 1990 Green Acres reunion movie Return to Green Acres.